Memphis shifts auto inspections to Shelby County

The Memphis City Council voted Tuesday to put the brakes on the city-operated vehicle inspection process.

The council voted 10-2 to stop funding the $2.8 million annual inspection system effective July 1 and shift that responsibility to Shelby County or the state.

Councilman Jim Strickland, who sponsored the measure with councilman Shea Flinn, said that since the entire county exceeds federal standards for ozone pollution, the entire county should pay for the vehicle-emission inspection process.

"Memphis taxpayers are the only people to pay for the inspections," said Strickland. "We need to stop paying for a countywide problem."

The council's vote would not end the inspection process or require county residents living outside Memphis to go through inspections; it only seeks to transfer the financial responsibility for the tests to the Shelby County tax base.

County officials, including Harvey Kennedy, county chief administrative officer, and incoming County Commission chairman Mike Ritz, have indicated they do not believe the county would have to conduct or fund the testing.

Memphis General Services Division director Martha Lott said that if the county did not accept responsibility for the inspection process, the state would contract the work out to private vendors.

The inspection system has been applied only to the city of Memphis since it started in 1984, after the city exceeded federal limits on carbon monoxide emissions. Memphis later met carbon monoxide standards.

All Shelby County was designated in violation of federal ozone-pollution standards in 2004.

Councilman Joe Brown said the city should continue to be responsible for the inspection process to protect the health of residents.

"We need these inspections because the health of our children and the elderly are at risk," said Brown.

But Flinn, who said he has suffered from asthma since childhood and showed council members his inhaler, pointed out that inspections would continue.

"The importance of air quality is not something I take lightly," Flinn said. "This is not the end to inspections; this is the end to only Memphians paying for inspections. Fair is fair."

Flinn said the resolution approved Tuesday sends a loud message while giving the city time to negotiate with the county.

"They might not take it over but we're never going to know until we talk to them and they're never going to take us seriously until we pass this resolution," Flinn said.